NCJ Number
244375
Journal
Journal of Youth and Adolescence Volume: 42 Issue: 9 Dated: September 2013 Pages: 1413-1425
Date Published
September 2013
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This study investigated the relationship between parental monitoring and racial/ethnic minority adolescents' school engagement and academic motivation as a function of parental warmth, and explored whether these associations varied for boys and girls.
Abstract
Guided by the integrative model of parenting, the present study investigated the relationship between parental monitoring and racial/ethnic minority adolescents' school engagement and academic motivation as a function of parental warmth, and explored whether these associations varied for boys and girls. Participants (60 percent female) were 208 sixth through eighth grade students (63 percent African-American, 19 percent Latino, 18 percent Multiracial) from an urban middle school in the Midwestern United States. Youth completed an in-school survey with items on parenting (parental monitoring, mothers'/fathers' warmth), cognitive engagement (school self-esteem), behavioral engagement (school trouble), and academic motivation (intrinsic motivation). As hypothesized, mothers' warmth enhanced the association between parental monitoring and youths' engagement and motivation. No gender differences in these associations emerged. Fathers' warmth strengthened the negative association between parental monitoring and school trouble, and this association was stronger for boys. Implications regarding the importance of sustaining a high level of monitoring within the context of warm parent-adolescent relationships to best support academic outcomes among minority youth are discussed. Abstract published by arrangement with Springer.